Scope and Content Note
The papers of Gustavus Richard Brown Horner (1806-1892) span the years 1826-1911, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1840 to 1870. The papers consist of correspondence, letterbooks, daybooks, medical journals, holograph manuscripts, registers of weather, and printed matter. The papers are primarily concerned with the medical aspects of Horner’s naval career and contain no personal material.
The majority of the material is in handwritten bound volumes or stitched folders. In the daybooks and medical journals, which cover most of Horner’s tours of duty, are medical reports, patients’ case histories, notes on the treatments he prescribed and the surgeries he performed, and regulations and notices with regard to the duties of the staff. Among the correspondents are John Deering, Phineas J. Horwitz, Joseph B. Hull, and Robert Pettit.
In the book file are notes, drafts, and holograph manuscripts of Horner’s writings. Under lists and indexes are found weather registers, which give dates, times and places of the readings of thermometers and barometers as well as descriptions of the condition of the wind and the sea, and the proceedings of the United States Naval Medical Board, which include notes on the examinations of assistant surgeons.